Christmas Celebrations

We were blessed by a visit from my, Erin's, parents for Christmas.  My younger brother is also currently out of the country, serving with the US Air Force in Japan.  Instead of spending Christmas alone, we convinced my parents to meet us on another island for a tropical holiday.  

We stayed near the beach for the first few nights, then inland among rice fields.  It was a wonderful break from Barat and a blessing for all of use to spend the time with my parents.  

Whitman in a traditional hat, playing a traditional instrument.

A few festive items I brought along to decorate the second place we stayed.

Whitman and Caedmon working a couple models with Papa J.

Enjoying tadpoles in a pond.

Enjoying the pool.

It currently is raining season, so between heavy rain storms, we were out as much as possible.

Whitman and Caedmon with Grammie and Papa J

We ventured to the Monkey Forest.  This is an area of land set aside for the protection and conservation of Macau Monkeys.   

Evangeline and Caedmon

The Monkey Forest has paths to wander along through the forest.  Monkeys roam freely everywhere.  They are not afraid of all the human visitors and very bold, taking any food or bottle of water from your hand.  

While standing close to a handrail full of monkeys, John became an escape for one of two quarreling monkeys.  

A minute or two later, the monkey departed from John's shoulder.

Taking in the many statues and temples within the forest.

Caedmon was brave enough to feed a monkey.

Celebrating the BIRTHday!

Our baby is getting a little big for sink bathing.

The only snow we saw was the festive decoration in the airport.  

 One of my favorite traditions John and I started, about 8 years ago, is retelling specific times we experienced the Father's provision or grace.  I have made an ornament for each experience, which we pull out of stockings on the morning of and take turns reading the accompanying synopsis or retelling from memory.   Our ornaments range from the birth of our three children, healthy and whole, finding my wedding ring in a small grass covered stream bed, paying off $80,000 of student loans, to the grace shown to John by a game warden when he shot a deer prior to the opening weekend of hunting season.  These are just a few examples, we are blessed to have many more.  We can easily remember so many of these events, but sad to say, we often forget the small details that left us in awe.

Our season-changing tree curtain.

I hung our ornament us upon returning from our time with grandparents.  They are such a great reminder of the many blessing, though often small, we have received out of His complete grace towards us.  

While we were away, John spent much of his time trying to manage our house building over the phone.  This also included transferring money to enable the builders to buy additional supplies.  We were again blessed, in an unforeseen way, when we were able to stop, on the way to the airport, to deposit money at a bank.  This proved to be very beneficial the following day because when we tried to catch a night bus after arriving back in the big city we failed.  Every night bus returning to Barat, or the next city, was full.  We were forced to spend the night in the big city.  This turned out to be a blessing as we were able to sleep in beds, instead of the night bus, and thankfully, found a car to ride home in instead of waiting for another night bus.  On top of a more comfortable ride home, John had the money in the bank to transfer wages to the builders as they were expecting it on Wednesday, but our return had been delayed a day.  

We hope this Holiday Season finds you remembers the many ways we all have been blessed beyond measure!

Miscellaneous Happenings

The Holiday Season must be in full swing in the States.  Here in Barat, the temperature remains the same though it is rainy season, mangoes are in season, and life is progressing as normal with language study, schooling, and house building.

Mangoes on the bus I rode home from the Barat market, on their way to be sold elsewhere.

 
We were blessed to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday in the big city.  We did some house shopping and eating out!  The highlight was sharing the holiday with friends over a mostly traditional meal.  Together with friends from the States, the UK, Germany, and Australia, we enjoyed chicken instead of turkey, rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, watermelon, sparkling cider, and pumpkin pie. 

One of the many home improvement stores we visited while in the big city. 

This store had the nicest and most visible display of tile.  Other stores had to move and shuffle tiles to be looked at.

    We spent an afternoon looking for tile to be used in our new home.  This proved to be more difficult than expected.  I, Erin, already had an idea of what I wanted.  On top of my desires, the tiles on display are not always available.  Some tiles have to be ordered, others are just out of stock, while others are available but have to be fetched from a nearby storage building.  After visiting at least 10 different stores, thankfully all on the same street, and dragging along worn out children, we decided on two different tiles.  One was immediately available, but the other was in a storage building which had already closed for the evening.  Fortunately the tile was able to be sent on the next truck to Barat.

Our hotel in the big city.

Most people go crazy over seeing our kids with their lighter skin and 'big' noses.

Evangeline was quite obliging to the staff at the hotel.  

New Menu Item - Spicy Chocolate Chicken

We enjoy eating at KFC while in the big city, but the menu items are not what you find in the States.  

Here they do not serve mashed potatoes, coleslaw, nor biscuits.  The menu mostly consists of chicken, rice, and French fries.  

A New Flavor

Have you seen these at your local store? 

We can buy these and seaweed flavored Lay's at our local convenience-mart.  

We also enjoy eating at McDonalds and Pizza Hut.  They are shoe-ins for tastes from home.

Though many of the menu items at McDonalds are similar, the boys often still order chicken and rice.

Back in Barat we attended a wedding of a friend's younger brother.  Though you may not know the bride and groom, the more guests the better!

Evangeline and I

Waiting for the Bride and Groom

The ceremony takes place in the home, while the majority of guests wait in a decorated tent outside the house.  Often the ceremony can be heard through a sound system.

I have begun my traditional holiday baking. 

I aim for a different cookie each week!
So far peppermint swirls, gingerbread men, nutmeg logs, and ribbon cookies.  

We celebrated Whitman's birthday.  

Though it fell on a Friday this year, it turned out to coincide with a national holiday!

Cake in a Cone

Our version of these flower decorated cupcakes Whitman saw in a magazine.

Neighborhood kids lining up for the Piñata.  

Whitman taking a few swings.  

The roof and floor are finished!

The building on our house is coming along, never quite as fast expected though.  Thankfully this week the floor was finished and the second level to the brick bathroom (as seem in the lower left of the above picture) was started.  

The silver roof of our house is seen to the right and happens to be the tallest.

Our house sits on the right at the end of this road.

Neighbors' houses in front of our house.

One neighbor and open land behind our house.

The space under our house, seen in the above picture, will be used for activities associated with the foundation John works for.  We envision literacy programs and afterschool study times to name a couple.  

   We've also have had a few new 'animal' experiences.  It is typical for cats, dogs, chickens, and ducks to roam free throughout our neighborhood.  The cats are often given scraps and may even wander in and out of people's homes, though rather skinny and sickly looking.  Dogs are wild and very skittish.  Chickens and ducks are raised by neighbors.  They always seem to return to their cages by evening.  There was a time we considered the cats good for managing the rat population.  After a friend told us, jokingly, that the cats and rats were in cahoots, we began to wonder.  Seeing how the dogs seem to be scared away by anything, even other animals, we are not sure that there is any benefit to all the wandering animals, especially as they frequently get into our garbage.

Evangeline and Caedmon in our current front yard with a duck in the background.

   There have been many times we've heard thumping above our ceiling, in the attic space.  Until recently, we were not sure if the sound was from cats or chickens, as we've seen both on roofs.  In the boys' bedroom last week we heard the cries of newly born kittens.  They were no where to be seen outside and were definitely most easily heard in their bedroom.
   

Five Dried Fish

   Yesterday, our soon to be neighbors graciously bestowed on me a bag of dried fish.  Apparently these particular fish are in season and most people really enjoy them dried instead of fresh.  To eat these fish, they usually are soaked momentarily in water, then fried.  I forgot the soaking part and used a great deal less oil than most.  It was pretty good, but very, very salty, probably due to the lack of soaking.

Ready to be consumed, though not very appetizing to me.

This has been a brief picture of our lives recently!